GNU/Linux Everywhere: New Stories, More Evidence
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-05 13:58:09 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-05 13:58:09 UTC
Success Stories
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Linux is a most popular Operating System compared to Windows and Mac. Linux is everywhere even at those places where most of us have not even thought. Tiny machines to Gaint Supercomputers are powered by Linux. Linux no more remains a Geeky thing.
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Although the Head Up Display (HUD) will remain the default, Canonical will be bringing back the local menus as an option. Jack Wallen responds to this announcement.
Ivory Coast, Romania, Latvia, India
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Before Emma, the JerryClan-Ivory Coast had flirted with Ubuntu, but that was before encountering the beautiful EmmaBuntus distribution.
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The laptops are running Linux, specifically Ubuntu 13.10, along with several dozen free and open source programs. Our program is believed to be the largest open source 1:1 implementation in Pennsylvania. By using open source software exclusively, we estimate an initial cost savings of at least $360,000 on licensing fees.
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Romania's Ministry of Education urges the country's schools to consider switching to open source solutions such as the Ubuntu distribution. This will help the schools to avoid legal problems with using unlicensed copies of proprietary software, the ministry confirmed today.
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A former Romanian secretary of state, Constantin Teodorescu, is calling on the country's public administrations to switch to Linux and other open source solutions. "The Romanian government should contact the budgetary heads at all public administrations and explain that they can switch everything to free software", he writes on his blog on Friday. "Let's get this straight, and end this tragedy".
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The Children's Hospital in Riga, Latvia, is using the Ubuntu Linux distribution for an increasing number of tasks. About half of the hospital's 600 workstations are now running Ubuntu, says Juris Alins, working in the hospital's IT department.
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National Council Of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) has released a notification on their website which promotes the use of Free and Open Source software in Indian schools. This notice is released well in time, as other schools, colleges and government institutions in India are already moving to open source software to save costs and prevent vendor locking. NCERT is responsible for maintaining standards in most government and private schools and educational institutions in India.
Chromebook
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When Google announced Chrome OS, many people scoffed at the viability of a browser-based OS. Currently, however, Chromebooks are among the most popular inexpensive computing devices today. The search giant has done a great job of making an OS that is light enough to function on entry-level Atom-based SOCs and even low-powered ARM silicon. With the launch of many new Chromebooks (click hear to find out which one we think is the best chromebook) we wanted to see if a person could survive with a Chromebook playing games, videos, word processing and more for an entire week. Read on to see how the OS fared against Windows in our seven-day challenge.
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There has been breakthroughs in sales of Chromebooks, with devices selling well in the inexpensive notebook segment in the US, and widely adopted for educational use through government procurement projects, the sources said. Chromebook shipments in 2014 are expected to increase to 4-5 million units, the sources indicated.
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Tango PC, the small form factor desktop rig that can fit in the palm of your hand, was already an impressive concept based on the fact that, despite its size, it’ll be powered by desktop hardware while also booting to traditional desktop operating systems like Windows 7 and Windows 8. On top of that though, Tango also announced that Tango PC owners will also be able to configure their miniature desktop computer to ship with alternative operating systems like Chromium OS and Ubuntu Linux pre-installed.
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Here are four Chrome extensions that make it easier to read web pages on your Chromebook. These extensions will let you skip making the font sizes of web pages larger to improve readability.
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I think computers like Chromebooks are the way of the future, but not because of their operating system - because of their hardware. Relatively low cost laptops with SSDs for storage and an insane battery life are everything I want in a computer.
Skills
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“Enterprises are increasingly describing Linux as a core part of the business,” said Shravan Goli, President of Dice. “In turn, hiring managers are turning up the dial on the incentives offered to technology talent with Linux skills. These professionals are working on projects tightly aligned with a future vision of what enterprises look like.”
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In terms of employers, Yoh's research found that there are 8,000 employers currently hiring for IT jobs with Linux requirements. The companies with the most Linux-related job postings are: Amazon.com, 2,356 jobs; Lockheed Martin, 713; Dell, 679; Northrop Grumman, 569; and Computer Sciences Corporation, 535.
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With large firms making attempts to equip themselves better with the latest technology so as to maintain their edge over the competition; this seems to be a good time to be a technology professional. However, it’s even a better time to be into Linux system administration. How? We will see it here.
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Linux experts get higher pay checks, better opportunities as their skills are still hard-to-find
Recommending GNU/Linux to a Friend
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Based on the figures in LinuxQuestions' Members Choice Awards, 84% of Linux desktop users prefer a classic desktop. By contrast, innovations like GNOME 3 or Ubuntu's Unity lag far behind. Which raises the question: what accounts for the popularity of the classic desktop, and what are the implications for the design of graphical interfaces?
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Last but not least, Starks' article is "wrong a bunch of ways," blogger Robert Pogson told Linux Girl.
In fact, "the Linux kernel is very similar on every distro," he explained. "If there is no driver for some hardware in a particular distro, build a kernel from kernel.org or change hardware.
"You have to get your priorities straight," he added. "Because some manufacturer may not have provided a driver for Linux is no reason not to use Linux. On the other hand, there are dozens of benefits of using GNU/Linux."
In all of Pogson's years of using Linux, "I have only seen a very few pieces of hardware I could not use: two printers, a wireless thingy and that's it," he recounted. "I used to use the Vesa driver if I could not get a driver for some video card. Along the way I have had more than a decade of excellent use of GNU/Linux."
In short, "I would recommend it to a friend," he concluded. "I would recommend Debian GNU/Linux even for a newbie. I would never recommend that other OS for any purpose. It's just too burdensome."
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She was on her computer at home doing something or the other when suddenly things went bad for her. The menu bar and the task bar disappeared, including the “Start” button and she couldn’t close or change anything on her screen. In a panic, she called friends to try to see if she could get guidance to fix it. One friend told her that the same thing had happened to her and it turned out to be a virus. Olivia was told to turn her computer off immediately and reinstall Windows. That was the only way to proceed.
All of her family pictures and all of her files…gone. She and her friend reinstalled Windows and spent the next two days getting her computer back into shape.
When I was giving the keyboard shortcut portion of the class, I noticed Olivia holding her hands over her mouth as her eyes grew wide. I thought she was going to cry. It turns out that Olivia had accidentally hit the F11 key while she was typing. She had no controls, no cues or hints as to how to get her computer screen back to normal. She had no idea she had accidentally hit the F11 key or that hitting it again would return things to normal. When she discovered how easy this was to fix she was both relieved and angry. She even left her seat to come forward and give me a hug as she recounted the story.
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During this period in time, the most common issue I ran into was Windows malware disrupting my client's ability to use their computer(s). After a while of fixing the same old problem, I decided I was ready for a change. During this transitional period, I became more familiar with the various popular Linux distros that were available: Red Hat, Mandrake (Mandriva), and the live Linux CDs that followed a short time later.
Flash forward to now, I use Linux on the desktop almost exclusively. For my day-to-day duties, Linux on the desktop allows me to create written content in addition to occasional video how-to tutorials. I can email, print, scan and store files on my computer in much the same way as those of you who use Windows do. The key difference is that I choose to use an operating system where the key support comes from the community, and not from some large corporation.
Advocacy
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To conclude, my point isn’t whether or not its wise to highlight the failings of one distro compared to another. My point is simply this: Linux Advocacy in its simplest and clearest definition is not MyLinux versus YourLinux. It is simply Advocating the use of Linux.
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I noticed a huge pop in my web stats for today and wondered why. The cause was a link on Tux Machines. There was a recent change of ownership. Now Dr. Roy Schestowitz and Rianne Schestowitz seem to be the main authours. In a couple of days they produced a huge number of informative articles mostly links to diverse sites advocating FLOSS and GNU/Linux. I love it.
Pessimism
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It's always "somewhat interesting and entertaining to see the ebb and flow of the top Linux distributions," said 451 Research's Jay Lyman. "One of the highlights is typically the Linux operating systems with staying power. After years of jockeying, we've seen Ubuntu in the top few distributions consistently for some time, which speaks to its desktop and developer popularity."
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It's long been the case that the world of Linux distributions offers at least one compelling choice for virtually every taste and purpose, but -- much like those dissatisfied with the weather in New England -- users who don't see a distro they like need only wait a few minutes.
We've lost a few distros since 2013 began, but we've also gained some interesting fresh blood. "You win a few, you lose a few," as the old saying goes; fortunately, the overall pool of choices remains as rich and diverse as ever.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- "Today's [Red Hat] is run by a cabal of vultures."
- it seems safe to assume Red Hat too will languish away
- Microsoft Layoffs in 2026 Can be Bigger Than 2025 Microsoft Layoffs (30,000+ Workers Laid Off)
- "Is there going to be any reorg or Microsoft layoffs?"
- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Represents People, Not Corporations
- FSF isn't in the "business" of appeasing oligarchs
- IBM: We Can't Make 'AI' (Voice Recognition) Do the Work of a McDonald's Teenager, So Let's Try the Same on Saudi Planes
- IBM is lost. It's truly lost.
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- Links 22/12/2025: Data Breaches, deterioration in Politics, and Geminispace
- Links for the day
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- Links for the day
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- It's not as simple as "laid off to be replaced by an Indian"
- GAFAM Deeply Connected to Jeffrey Epstein, Richard Stallman (RMS) in No Way Connected to Jeffrey Epstein
- people who hoarded all the capital get to decide what people think and say
- Linus Torvalds Has a Birthday This Coming Weekend, Thankfully He Still Controls His Main Project
- GNU and Linux should remain under their control as long as they live
- Mozilla is Getting Attention for All the Wrong Reasons, Take a Look at LibreWolf
- Just last week Mozilla added a new top-level manager who (as usual) came from a "tech giant"
- When Conformism Means Capitulation and Defeat
- In an age of injustices like these, we all have some kind of moral obligation not to be conformist.
- Text is Still King
- But the so-called 'industry' insists that we should download 10 MB of objects from multiple domains... even just to read 5-10 paragraphs of text
- Links 22/12/2025: Facebook "Testing $14.99 Monthly Subscription Fee to Post Links" and "Middle East Petrostates as American Media Owners"
- Links for the day
- Beyond the World Wide Web (WWW)
- We continue to treat Gemini Protocol as a first-class citizen
- Serbia: GNU/Linux Rises, Windows Down to All-Time Lows
- According to statCounter
- "Wrestling With Pigs"
- "Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it."
- Productive Year and Better Access to Techrights' Archives Going Back to 2006
- we've long needed and wanted native, local, independent search facilities
- Linux Abandoned by Linux Foundation
- It speaks for Microsoft and for so-called 'AI' companies
- Microsoft Has Practically Given Up on XBox Already
- Expect many XBox related layoffs when 2026 starts (Q1)
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, December 21, 2025
- IRC logs for Sunday, December 21, 2025
- Gemini Links 21/12/2025: Solstice, Chaos of CSS, and Program Interpreter Fun
- Links for the day
- Why?
- Why write articles?
- Microsoft-Connected Publisher Spinning XBox's Death Spiral (It's Dying Fast) as a Strength and Something Deliberate
- "Microsoft’s big gaming pivot"
- Slop is Rare by Now
- A year ago slop was so abundant that we did a whole series about it, and it was daily
- Links 21/12/2025: U.S. Strikes in Syria, "Epstein Files Photos Disappear From Government Website"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 21/12/2025: Labrador Retriever of Lagrange's Developer Dies From Cancer, Political Philosophy, and "Getting to Inbox Zero"
- Links for the day
- Microsoft is Becoming Irrelevant: The Case of Georgia
- Not Georgia Tech
- Sirius Open Source is Now Imminently Dead (Struck Off)
- compulsory strike-off
- Dr. Richard Stallman, Invited by LibreTech Collective, is Giving a Public Talk in Georgia Tech Next Month (Scheller College of Business)
- They can probably squeeze about 400 people into this room
- 25 Years of Activism for GNU/Linux
- My passion for GNU/Linux brought a lot of contentment
- Africa, Where Microsoft Used De Facto Slaves to Pretend to be "AI", Chatbots Usage is 0.2% of Measured Online Traffic
- Judging by recent trends in Africa, many "Windows PCs" are being converted into GNU/Linux computers
- New Drone Footage Shows IBM is Dead (Parts of It)
- The people who participated in IBM when IBM actually mattered probably have boasting rights, unlike people who work for IBM today
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- Phoronix nowadays gets carried away; it made a new category to talk about slop and it decided to call it "intelligence" with some caricature of a brain (that's misleading)Phoronix nowadays gets carried away; it made a new category to talk about slop and it decided to call it "intelligence" with some caricature of a brain (that's misleading)
- After 35 Years the World Wide Web, HTML, and HTTP Are Proprietary
- HTTP/2 added a lot of complexity (it's just a Google protocol, based on SPDY originally), many image formats are proprietary and patented, HTML got 'replaced' by Java-Scripts [sic], and many URLs (the URL system was created in the early 90s) are just long strings for proprietary 'webapps'
- The General Public License (GPL) Inspired the Web's Original Openness/Freedom, According to Tim Berners-Lee
- "During the preceding year I had been trying to get CERN to release the intellectual property rights to the Web code under the General Public License (GPL) so that others could use it."
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, December 20, 2025
- IRC logs for Saturday, December 20, 2025
- The Register MS Has Lowered Its Standards Considerably
- Incidentally, we've only just noticed that "US editor for The Register since July 2025" has not been active for 4 weeks already
- Scamfarms, Spamfarms, and Slopfarms in "Linux" Clothing
- Today, Linux searches in Google News produced no slop at all. That's an improvement.
- Did Bill Gates Lobby to Blur the Face of the Young Woman He Openly Braces (and Who Isn't His Wife)?
- "This photo of of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with a woman whose face is blurred out is just one of 68 more photos and documents released today."
- Links 20/12/2025: Microsoft Ruins Televisions, 'Epstein Files' Deeply Sanitised (to Protect Particular Culprits)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 20/12/2025: Merry Christmas 2025 and Running a Factorio Headless Server on FreeBSD with the Linuxulato
- Links for the day
- With 10 Days Left, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Already Raised Close to $300,000 This Winter
- they're besieged by despicable corporations and very despicable people
- The Real Problem With Rust is Not "Wokeness" (It Never Was)
- Don't feed the trolls who attack "Rust People" on political grounds
- 2025 in Numbers
- What was very good about this year is that we truly got "into the rhythm" of publishing
- More Microsoft Layoffs Coming Soon
- When I spoke about Microsoft layoffs (routinely) I got very viciously attacked by Microsoft boosters
- My Humble Assessment of the Future of Red Hat, A Company That IBM is Flushing Down the Loo
- GNU/Linux will be OK without Red Hat, but shaping the future of it matters because we don't want companies like Valve (DRM) to set the agenda
- Probably the Least Useful Gadgets, Ever
- as if a "smart" thing worn on the wrist is the "new Rolex"
- Former Manager at IBM Research (Yorktown) Says Why IBM is Doomed and the Anonymous Tipline (Speak Up) is a Trap
- IBM isn't willing to change or to address internal issues
- Links 20/12/2025: Fentanylware Becomes CheeTok and "Why Roomba Died"
- Links for the day
- Linux Foundation: Richard Stallman Developed Only a Software Licence
- We already criticised this report several times last night
- Impulsive Writing, Quotas, and Keeping Things as Concise as Feasible
- A 10-word sentence being read by a million people can have the same impact or magnitude (exposure-wise) as a million-word book being read by just 10 people
- Gemini Links 20/12/2025: Christmas Songs, Storms, and Old Web
- Links for the day
- Coming to Grips With a Lack of Future at IBM
- Red Hat's future doesn't look bright under the auspices as they seem right now
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 19, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, December 19, 2025
- Links 20/12/2025: Media Layoffs, a Third of Online Traffic is Bots
- Links for the day